


What's Worth Fighting For

by rabbitwriter



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Cunnilingus, Established (Working) Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Light Angst, Mirialan, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rebellion, Romantic Friendship, all the feels, double agent, slight kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 21:47:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9091996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabbitwriter/pseuds/rabbitwriter
Summary: A collection of drabbles and one-shots based on a head-cannon I've gradually put together for a certain ginger-haired Imperial agent. Meet Captain Tarvi Chavik - a brash and sassy Mirialan spacer who pulls double duty as Kallus' Rebellion handler. Mostly smut (so much smut), but there's character development, too - particularly around the reasons that might have lead Kallus to chose the path of a double agent (because I love Zeb, but he couldn't have been enough of an impetus on his own). Chapter ratings may vary; they'll be posted at the beginning, in the notes. Chapters not posted in chronological order - I'm just going where my muse takes me, so expect some jumping around in the timeline.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For the debut...Explicit. Definitely, most certainly, Explicit.
> 
> Kallus and Tarvi finally admit that maybe they have a thing for each other. In taking a chance with her, Kallus figures out what's worth fighting for.

_“I can’t talk right now, I’m looking and I like what I’m seeing;_

_Got me feeling kinda’ shocked right now._

_Couldn’t have stopped right now, even if I wanted.”_

**“Ain’t My Fault”**

**Zara Larsson**

* * *

 

There was nothing in the entire galaxy that could have prepared Captain Tarvi Chavik for what she found when she opened the ‘fresher door. In retrospect, she would tell herself that it wasn’t exactly her fault that she couldn’t do much else except stand there and oggle. The ‘fresher, like any one might find on a civilian light freighter, was tiny: three long steps would put a visitor in the shower and even a child could spread their arms wide and touch the opposite bulkheads of the room. There was barely enough room for _one_ being to occupy, much less _two_. So, of course, there was really only one place for Tarvi’s eyes to go and that was straight ahead: 

At her ginger-haired passenger, who had one large hand braced on the bulkhead beneath the showerhead and the other wrapped around his cock. About the time Tarvi registered _that_ , she also realized that she’d heard a muffled sort of noise at precisely the same moment that the ‘fresher door had finished sliding open. The ‘fresher’s original occupant was breathing heavily and as she watched his shoulders and chest heave, it dawned on the good Captain that she had opened the door _at precisely the moment that he had cum_. 

Her jaw dropped, as he moved his left hand from between his legs and put his fist against the bulkhead, in a mimic of his right. He hid his eyes behind his bulging bicep, but she could see his mouth; his jaw was slack and even after what felt - to Tarvi - like an eternity, he was still panting heavily.

“Captain,” his deep voice was as level as ever, if a bit breathy; the unexpected sound of his voice made Tarvi jump and a feeling of guilt slid down her throat to settle in her belly. “Would you mind?”

He pushed himself off of the bulkhead and quickly palmed the controls beneath the showerhead. Water poured down the flattened hair at the crown of his head, and sluiced swiftly down his neck and the curve of his shoulders. He held his left hand out beneath the water and to Tarvi’s growing horror, she was hopelessly riveted by the sight of him washing away the evidence of his release. The Force save her, _but she couldn’t look away_.

“Captain,” he repeated, his tone not quite as cool as it was before - this time, there was a hint of embarrassment that finally prompted the Mirialan woman to drag her eyes up the length of him to meet his.

The flow of the water was timed to limit excessive waste, and it cut off just as he finally turned himself fully toward her. Tarvi had every intention of meeting his gaze, as any _well-mannered_ being would, but she was instantly distracted by the way the water running from his shoulders disappeared into the thick mat of hair that sprawled across his chest. Even wet, she could tell that the red undertones of the hair on his head and cheeks, became far more pronounced the farther down it grew. Then her eyes fell on the discolored skin that stretched from his right shoulder, all the way down to his forearm; she realized after a dumbfounded moment, that she was looking at the aftermath of a bad burn.

Determined not to stare so rudely at his scarring, Tarvi’s gaze flicked back toward his well-defined chest. As her eyes fell lower from that point, she blamed the persistence of her gawking on the pleasing aesthetic of his physical form. Wide shoulders and chest tapered into a firm waist that - to her surprise - was well-defined, but not exactly what some would call a ‘six-pack’. The hair that covered the strong muscles of his pectorals narrowed into a thin, but thick, line that tempted her attention to pursue it to its conclusion. The patch of hair between his thighs was trimmed, but not shaved - which, like the pleasant-but-not-wholly-intimidating-firmness of his stomach, strangely pleased Tarvi. Then there was…

“Captain!” a third time; now there was a distinctive note of exasperation.

“Sorry!” Tarvi’s whole body twitched as she snapped her eyes up toward his; she could feel her cheeks begin to warm in a blush.

There was an awkward pause. Tarvi knew that he wanted his privacy, but so help her, she seemed rooted to the spot. She finally managed to keep her eyes on the level, although it was hard to meet his golden-brown gaze. Her mind reeled with the knowledge that, despite his curt tone and present scowl, he didn’t seem to show any embarrassment over having been caught masterbating…

The image of him leaning against the bulkhead, with his fingers wrapped around his hard, flushed cock, made Tarvi’s entire face turn hot. What made that blush linger was the realization that she really wanted to let her gaze drop again. Was he still hard? If flaccid, did he nestle against those trimmed curls, or did he still hang heavy? Was he cut, like some of the other human men she’d slept with? Or did he still have his foreskin, like the men of her own race?

“Mind handing me the towel?”

Was it just her, or was his voice turning rough? Unable to look him in the eye, and determined to not stare so openly at his nakedness, Tarvi had settled her gaze on his mouth. At his request, she glanced quickly up at him and then, to her eternal shame, she _stammered_.

“S-sure,” her movement was jerky, as she twisted her torso slightly to the left and grabbed the plain brown towel that hung on a hook right beside the toilet. Her eyes fell on his chest as she then stepped further into the ‘fresher and held out the towel to him. The skin beneath his hair was flushed red - surprised, Tarvi followed the obvious flush up, over his shoulders and up his neck.

He might not have shown embarrassment at having been caught in such a private act...and he might not show any self-consciousness about presenting her with a full frontal...but he _was_ embarrassed. For the first time in ever, Tarvi found herself admiring the resolve of Imperial self-control. The Captain glanced at his mouth, which was pressed into a thin line, and then at his eyes, which never wavered from returning her gaze. Truly, his ability to take the situation in stride was impressive. Of course, she reflected, as she stood there with her hand held out, his cheeks _could_ be flushed as well, but one would never know with those thick sideburns in the way. If he was in uniform, there would have been no way to know that he was anything other than displeased.

Then she pieced together that _his whole upper body_ flushed red. That blush of embarrassment covered his neck, his chest, _and_ his shoulders. That was probably due to how pale his skin was, but all Tarvi cared about was how simply _delicious_ it made him.

Would he flush like that if she held him down and rode him? She had read, in a number of silly holo-romances that were her secret indulgence, of human heroines flushing pink from head to toe in the throes of their passion. Could human _men_ do the same? She suddenly wanted very, very much, to find out.

Something in her hand was tugged, which brought her back to the present. Now, his lips were ever-so-slightly curved in something related to a smile.

“May I have my towel, Captain?”

“Oh,” was the best that Tarvi could manage. She blinked and met his gaze, and loosened her grip on the thick cloth gripped between her fingers.

“Thank you,” his Coruscanti accent was smooth and unruffled, but a quick assessment of his ears showed the tips of them to be as red as his chest. “Did you come in here for something? Other than to stare at me?”

It took her a few minutes to register what he was saying, as her attention was now directed by the towel that he lifted to his head. His face disappeared for a few moments as he scrubbed vigorously at his hair - Tarvi had to fight with herself to _not_ take the blatant opportunity presented to her, and sneak a peak his cock. To stave off her curiosity, she actually answered his question.

“Oh, uh…” she licked her lips as his face came back into view.

Words almost failed her as she took in how surprisingly _handsome_ he looked with his hair tousled. She had never seen him before with so much as a single strand out of place; now it stood up every which way, and even fell forward across his forehead.

 _Answer his question, idiot_! Reason finally caught up with her and she awkwardly turned her gaze toward the bulkhead to the left of them.

“I...uh...y’know...came to use the ‘fresher…” she couldn’t help wincing at how incredibly _juvenile_ she sounded; Force save her, but she was stuttering like a teenager who had been called out on their crush.

“Ah. Well, I’ll finish up in my quarters, then.”

Before Tavi could move, or otherwise prepare herself, he stepped out from behind the shower stall’s clear duraplast divide and began to sidle past her. Or, at least, she thought he was trying to sidle - in reality, the ‘fresher was so narrow that he practically pressed his whole body flush against hers. Tarvi couldn’t help a quiet squeak of surprise and she instinctively reached up with her hands to stop him, so she could get out of his way before he moved any further along.

They both froze when her hands landed, unthinkingly, on his chest. His hair was damp, his skin was warm, and Tarvi wanted nothing more than to run her palms over his nipples. Her eyes went to his mouth. She wanted to kiss him.

She’d wanted to kiss him for some time now, but several facts had stopped her. One, she was his handler - the one the Rebellion had put in charge of relaying information from him and to him, and the one tasked to monitor his loyalties. She’d been the very one he had come to in the beginning, after finding out that she had ties to the Rebellion, to express his desire to serve as a double agent. She had slyly interrogated him, had purposefully put him in situations to determine the veracity of his claims, and it was her final opinion of him that had gained him access to the Rebellion as their newest Fulcrum.

They had worked together almost a whole year now and theirs was a fairly cordial professional relationship. In the last few months, it had become friendly, even intimate, in a way. She’d started falling for him, then. But, it was the nature of the work they did together and the position of authority she had over him, that had forced her to keep her distance. Those things...and the fact that she knew he didn’t like aliens. She’d seen the look on his face as he watched her on several occasions, when he thought her attention was directed elsewhere. He might have cast his lot in with the Rebellion, but certain Imperial prejudices died hard. She wasn’t about to throw aside her dignity for a man who thought her repulsive.

So, she was completely floored when he braced a hand on the bulkhead by her head and leaned in toward her. Her back was against that same bulkhead; she tried to lean away from him, but there was no way to escape the way his chest now pushed her hands against her own breasts. His breath tickled her ear and Tarvi was quite certain she’d die of humiliation if he ever found out how _kriffing wet_ that made her.

“Captain,” his ‘chops brushed against her cheek as he spoke and Tarvi thought her knees would give out. “Why don’t you come by my quarters, when you’re done?”

And that was that. With nothing more to say, he didn’t linger, and within seconds, he had left her still pressed against that damn bulkhead, winded and speechless.

* * *

 

Twenty minutes later and Kallus had begun pacing back and forth across the space next to his bunk. With his long legs, it took two and a half steps to cover the distance in one direction, so it wasn’t a particularly satisfying pace. But, it was movement, and that helped him think. 

He had recently come to the fact that he’d fallen for Captain Chavik within days of first meeting her. Zeb Orrelios had planted the seeds of his dissatisfaction with the Empire...but it was Tarvi Chavik who had encouraged his sedition to grow. In the last year, a significant portion of his investigations had been directed toward Fringe groups and individuals, as suspicion began to arise that many a spacer was beginning to look to the Rebellion for profit. Her name came across his desk and datapad several times, however, before he decided she was worth his time and effort. There were bigger leads to pursue than a single alien smuggler and her completely non-human crew.

He’d found out that she did, indeed, have connections with the Rebellion. He would have gone about his usual Imperial business, then, if it hadn’t been for her cargo. She smuggled orphaned _younglings_ to safer worlds to start over with new families, or to relatives who had the means to disappear. Some of those younglings she smuggled straight out of Imperial detention centers or labor camps, which was how Tarvi and her beloved _Ephira_ came to gain the Imperial Security Bureau’s attention.

It was finding out what happened to children in those detention centers and labor camps that finally turned Kallus’ stomach against his Imperial ideology. He could utter orders to wipe out whole species, he could coldly interrogate adults without much moral confliction, and he could justify the suppression of mercenaries and other contentious riff-raff. But, for two years, he had struggled with a strange sense of uneasiness after encounters with one Ezra Bridger - burgeoning Jedi apprentice or not. The youth of Bridger and his fellow rebel, Sabine Wren, had never settled well with Kallus. He had kept that uneasiness to himself - had even suppressed it within his consciousness as well as he suppressed rebellious factions on uneasy worlds. But, coming across a youngling in Tarvi’s care, who was so traumatized that she could only stare into corners, her dark eyes completely vacant, had broken him.

She was only four. Kallus could turn a blind eye to a lot of things. But, the abject desiccation of a youngling’s spirit wasn’t one of them. His first true act of rebellion against the Empire was helping Tarvi escape from the detention center _he_ had put her in. And, it was she who he had admitted his doubts about the Empire to, and it was she who he had finally approached with a desire to use his status for something _right_.

She’d been his handler ever since. The longer they had known each other and the longer they had worked together, the more Kallus had grown to admire her. The more he had started to _confide_ in her. Being a double agent was infinitely harder, he had found, than just being _an_ agent. As he became more and more aware of the Empire’s _actual_ agenda, and as he became more and more aware of the importance of _morality_ , it became harder and harder to maintain the facade of a faithful servant. To keep his cover, he still had to interrogate, he still had to investigate, he still had to frighten, intimidate, threaten, and bully. He couldn’t wash his hands clean of the blood he continued to spill - either directly or indirectly - without revealing his gradual change of heart.

Now that he knew what to look for, and what he was actually looking _at_ , it was harder to simply say “I was doing my duty”. It was becoming harder to swallow back the questions. So, it was Tarvi he confided in, on the rare occasions - like this one - where he was undercover long enough on the Empire’s business, for them to work together. It was Tarvi who insisted he keep serving two masters; it was Tarvi who went out of her way, when she was able, to show him the results of the information he passed along. It was Tarvi who had helped him find his heart and who now helped him from losing it again in the overwhelming cruelty and coldness of the Empire.

They had grown close, he thought. She had even started to confide in _him_ , though her concerns had far less to do with moral ambiguity, and a lot more to do with righteous indignation. It was during one of her tirades against the Empire, that he realized his _desire_ for her. He had never, in the whole of his life, been attracted to an alien - even a Near Human, like Tarvi. But, in coming to know her, his prejudice had slowly slipped away, until he looked at her simply as a _woman_ , as a _good_ being, as someone who, in so many ways, was _better_ than he could ever hope to be himself.

They had begun bantering with one another. They had the same dry sense of humor, the same love of sarcasm; recently, he had begun to wonder, in fact, if their snappy witticisms toward each other were simply a convenient cover for flirtation. _He_ had certainly found himself flirting with her, though he was pretty sure that what passed as flirting for a man who had grown up among Coruscant’s military elite, was lost on a woman who had lived her whole life with grease smudged across her nose and oil stains on her pant legs.

Tarvi, he knew from watching her interact with others, was a very earthy individual. She _touched_ , a _lot_...yet she had never touched him, except when necessary. She had never thrown her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek, like she did every member of her crew (even the grizzled bounty hunter they had acquired) upon seeing them after a certain absence. She had never let her gaze linger on him, unashamed, as he had seen her do frequently to men of many different races, on those occasions when the two of them met in some far-flung spaceport.

Until today. _Today_ , she had looked at him like she looked at those other men...and then some. So help him, he hadn’t helped matters any; despite his embarrassment, he had slyly manipulated the whole situation in the ‘fresher, the moment he realized that she _knew_ she had walked in on him cumming and had still kept standing there, gawking at him. He’d wanted to kiss her when he’d pressed her up against the wall. He’d wanted to drop his towel and lift her by the back of her thighs, so she could wrap her legs around his waist. He’d wanted to bury himself in her goodness, her sassiness, her unabashed sensuality.

But, he’d had the sense to realize that they needed to _talk_.

He had given up on her showing up at his door...but she caught him mid-stride with a soft:

“You wanted to see me, Agent?”

Tarvi’s arms were crossed and her shoulder leaned against the frame of the door. Kallus didn’t miss the way her lavender-colored eyes lingered on his naked chest. Even this, he manipulated, just to see how she’d react - he was dressed for bed, in nothing more than a pair of dark gray, Imperial-issue PT pants that hung low on his hips.

“Agent is it, now?” he quirked an eyebrow at her.

Her carefully schooled expression turned wry and she looked away from him as she lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.

“You keep calling me ‘Captain’.”

“We’re on a first name basis, dammit,” Kallus swore and ran fingers through his hair in a sudden show of frustration. “You just surprised me, Tarvi. That’s all.”

“I imagine ‘surprise’ is a bit of an understatement,” Tarvi ducked her chin down toward her neck and muttered at the tops of her boots. “You shocked the shit outta _me_.”

“Is that why you just stood there and kept staring at me?” Kallus asked carefully, after a brief, uncomfortable pause. “Because of shock?”

“Well, that and you’re nice to look at,” Tarvi had lifted her head with a small and cheeky grin, but then she seemed to realize what she had admitted.

Her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of green as she desperately tried to find some place else to look other than his face.

“I’ve been dancing around this issue for months now...but let’s call it like it is,” Kallus took a deep breath and took a step toward the _Ephira_ ’s captain. “Do you -” he paused, then took another step, and only when he was about an arm’s length away from her did he try again: “Did you like what you saw?”

It was a flirtatious question and _not_ the one he was originally going to ask. The conversation, such as it was, was actually going very differently from what he originally intended. But, the time for pretense seemed to have long passed and he was eager to simply know the truth: was there _something_ simmering beneath the surface between them?

His question clearly caught her off guard. Her pale purple eyes snapped up to meet his and the sight of her biting her bottom lip went straight to his groin. All these years with the Empire and he was finally driven to distraction by a Mirialan. The Force clearly cherished irony.

“Tarvi,” Kallus offered her what he hoped was an encouraging sort of smile. “Do I get an answer?”

“Well,” her voice was strangely breathy and her eyes slid away from his for the upteenth time in the last hour. “I didn’t run away screaming.”

Kallus pursed his lips. By now he knew as well as anyone that Tarvi’s evasive maneuvers weren’t regulated to firefights.

“A straight answer, Tarvi,” Kallus considered a moment, then added: “Please.”

He propped his right hand on his hip and ran his left hand through his hair again. She wasn’t being coy, per se - her answer was telling enough, as well as the blush on her cheeks. But, the Imperial double agent found himself desperate for a conclusive response.

Tarvi didn’t disappoint. She lifted her eyes and slowly considered his half-naked body from waist to face. Her eyes, when they met his, were as intense as her straight answer: “Yes.”

But, then she looked away from him and shifted uncomfortably against the doorframe.

There was something bothering her, Kallus could tell. He’d been in the business of interrogation and investigation too long to not pick up on her blatant hesitation. A part of it, certainly, could be the embarrassment of being so blatantly called out on her interest in him...but he didn’t think that was it. He couldn’t say at all what it was, but he was going to needle her until he found out.

He took a step, then another, until he was close enough to touch her. He wet his lips nervously as he thought of what to say next. Again, it was flirtatious - even outrageous, for him - and not at all what he meant to utter. But, it was blunt and at the moment, that was all Kallus was interested in.

“Please feel free to act upon any interest you might have.”

Her eyes widened in astonishment, but she didn’t look up at him as he expected. Instead, she tightened her arms around herself and spoke to the floor.

“But...you don’t like aliens.”

 _That_ was wholly unexpected. For a few seconds, Kallus could only sputter. Finally, he shook his head and ran a hand over his mouth.

“I can’t deny the...privileged...perception that the Empire has cultivated,” his answer was slow and deliberate. “But, Tarvi...I’ve come to realize something,” he paused and considered asking her to look at him, but decided that maybe _he_ wasn’t quite able to look her in the eye yet, so he forged ahead. “When you get to know someone... _really_ know them...you stop thinking of them as the ‘other’.”

She lifted her eyes of her own accord and the two spent a long moment considering each other warily. Tarvi finally frowned and shook her head in disbelief.

“I see the look you always give me when you think I don’t notice.”

It was Kallus’ turn to frown.

“What look?”

“You...well...you know…” Tarvi faltered and glanced shyly his way, though her gaze fell somewhere in the center of his chest. “You, uh, always _scowl_. You bunch up your face, like you just bit down on something you don’t like.”

“Oh,” Kallus couldn’t help a sharp, short chuckle - and an odd sense of relief. “That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I’m sure, if you stop to think, you’ve seen me give my datapad the same look.”

“Usually when you see something you don’t like,” Tarvi’s moxy seemed to rise and she lifted her chin, even if her eyes didn’t follow.

“No,” Kallus shook his head and made a sound that was something between a laugh and a sigh. “That’s the look I always have when I’m trying to figure something out.”

“So why give _me_ that look?” she frowned.

“Because, I’ve been trying to figure out what makes you who you are. Because, I’ve been trying to figure out what to think of you. Because, recently…” Kallus voice trailed off and any sign of humor was gone, as he struggled for his next words. “Recently I’ve been trying to figure out what I feel about you.”

“Feel?” she echoed the word softly and finally glanced up at him.

The wonder and surprise in her face took him back. He could feel his cheeks warm and was suddenly thankful for the one external feature - besides his uniform - that she had endlessly ragged on him about since the day they met. His sideburns were quite effective in hiding his blush.

But, then her expression changed - it darkened and something in her eyes hardened.

“We shouldn’t feel _anything_ about each other, Kallus.”

The use of his last name hurt even more than when she had called him ‘Agent’ earlier.

“And why do you say that?” he argued past the sinking feeling in his chest.

“Ours isn’t the kind of relationship that should get...complicated,” her voice was firm, in spite of her hesitation.

He stared her, hard. To her credit, she didn’t look away, but her face grew darker the longer they stood there. Kallus was perversely pleased to know he wasn’t the only one made uncomfortable by the night’s unfolding events.

“Then we need to get me another handler,” his calm tone completely belied the fact that a change in their working relationship was the _last_ thing he wanted.

“No,” Tarvi’s answer was sharp; it drew both of them up in surprise.

“And why not?” Kallus decided it was best to keep the momentum on the current trail of thought, so he rallied back quickly.

“Because…” her voice trailed off and she turned her head away from him.

He knew what she was thinking. Even with her face turned away, he had seen the answer there, before she had tried to hide it. So, he said it for her - because, for himself, it was equally true.

“For the record, _I_ have no desire to change handlers. I’d worry myself sick over you.”

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, though she kept her face turned away from him.

“I can take care of myself just fine without you, Kallus. You need _me_ , remember?”

“I do, but that’s besides the point. _I’m_ not the impetuous one who goes into any fight with blasters blazing, and doesn’t stop to think things through until later. I’ve already had to break you out of one detention center already.”

“Because you _put me there_!” she sputtered and Kallus couldn’t help laughing quietly; he sobered up rapidly, however, with her next outburst. “You could be discovered at a moment’s notice. You’ve told me yourself that they have ISB agents who are trained to spy on others. Or the military could find you out. Who’s gonna get you out of trouble, if your life’s suddenly put on the line?"

“You might not have a choice in that, Tarvi,” his voice was uncharacteristically soft.

“I’ll have even less of a choice if I’m not your handler,” her reply was just as quiet.

And there it was. They cared about each other. The admission - if not the realization - seemed to pull them both up short. She turned back toward him and gazed up at him; it was finally Kallus’ turn to be distracted, as she tilted her face up toward his. Her mouth was soft and _Force_...he wanted to kiss her.

* * *

 

“So...you _don’t_ dislike aliens?” she blurted the only thing that came to mind; the look in his eyes as he stared at her mouth was wiping her mind blank of any rational thought. 

“I don’t dislike _you_ ,” he dragged his eyes up to hers with obvious effort. “The rest will have to be a work in progress.”

She nodded absently and slowly - so very slowly - she took her first step toward him. He stiffened, but she knew now that it was simply out of surprise. She’d been so passive during the whole conversation, that he had probably given up expecting her to make any sudden moves.

“What were you thinking about?” the question tumbled out before she could stop herself.

Kallus blinked, confused.

“What do you mean? When?”

Oh, the Force preserve her. Her face _burned_...but there was nothing she could do about it now. She’d asked the question and opened up the proverbial canister of worms.

“In...in the shower,” she wanted to reach out and touch him, but uncertainty still nipped at the back of her mind, so she twisted her hands in front of her, between them.

“Oh,” his eyes widened and _finally_ she saw his blush beneath the ‘chops.

In fact, he blushed so hard that it turned the bridge of his nose red. Amused - and emboldened by curiosity - Tarvi finally reached out and brushed her fingers against the smooth skin above his sideburns. When a Mirialan blushed, their skin just turned darker; seeing Kallus’ face turn bright red was as endearing as it was novel.

“Do I get an answer?” she playfully mimicked his earlier refusal to let her silence go unchallenged.

“I-I...uh…” it was official, she thought - she’d broken Agent Kallus.

The thought made her smile, but she stifled it, sensing that if she showed any amusement over his current embarrassment, it would dampen what tentative progress they’d made that night.

“Were you thinking of me?” she finally cupped his cheek and let her palm flatten against the side of his face.

He stood ramrod straight, his eyes wide and lips slightly parted in shock. Usually, he stood at such a rigid military attention when he was trying to reign in some particularly forceful emotion. Usually, that emotion was indignation or anger. But, this time...she let her eyes drop slowly down between them and she had to bite her lip to keep from smiling. This time, the evidence was clear that Agent Kallus was standing at attention because he was trying to reign in his _arousal_. When she looked back up, she was surprised to find that the flush in his face was starting to wan; in its place was a sharp intensity in his eyes that she’d seen before. It was the look he got whenever he was sighting down the barrel of his bo-rifle.

“You were thinking of me,” this time, it was a statement; this time, Kallus answered anyway.

“Yes.”

“Anything in particular that you were thinking about that you’d like me to do?” she let her hand fall from his face, down his neck and onto his chest; she felt him shiver as her palm pressed flat, for a second time, above his heart.

“Is that an offer?” his voice was so low and rough that Tarvi thought she might swoon from the sound of it alone.

“I can’t bear the thought of...of handing you off to someone else. And after tonight, we _both_ know that we’ll just be delaying the inevitable if we ignore what the other has said...admitted, really,” she shrugged, suddenly self-conscious and she talked to the hand on his chest, instead of to his face. “I’m thinking we should just see where this goes.”

“This?” his inherent thoroughness wouldn’t let her leave anything to misinterpretation.

“You were thinking about me while jerking off in the shower,” she didn’t move her eyes up, but she also didn’t try to hide a smile that swiftly turned wry. “And...you know...maybe…” she slowly started to card her fingers through the hair that covered his chest. “I’ve thought about you a few times...at night...in my bunk…”

He made an incoherent sound in the back of his throat and both of his hands were suddenly at her waist. She didn’t resist when he pulled her toward him and in the space of a breath, her body was flush with his.

“Anything in particular that you were thinking about that you’d like me to do?” he parroted her words back to her and she lifted her face to catch a smile flitting across his own lips.

“A...uh…” she licked her lips and the smile disappeared; Tarvi was abruptly aware of how _hot_ it was all of a sudden. “A kiss...would be a good -”

The rest of her sentence got lost in his mouth. His hands moved from her waist to her face before she could process what was happening and the moment his palms cupped her cheeks, his lips pressed against hers. He caught her with her mouth opened to speak, too - upon later reflection, Tarvi wasn’t so sure that was pure luck on Kallus’ part. She’d seen how quickly he could move when an opportunity presented itself; she’d also seen, first hand, how keen he was to capitalize to the slightest detail that might give him a tactical advantage.

The intensity of their kiss was as abrupt as the entire situation leading up to it. Just as she was reconciling herself to the speed with which he had obeyed her suggestion, she felt his tongue slide against hers. The unexpected taste of him made her knees go weak, so she flung her arms around his neck and clung to his shoulders for dear life. He pulled back for a moment, as if to catch his breath and she whispered his name - his _first_ name - and then he had his hands cupped against her bottom, as he pulled her feet up off the floor and her body tight against his.

“Kriff,” Tarvi gasped; he was all muscle and hardness, and the ease with which he hoisted her off the deck was enough to make her melt willingly against him.

She was _not_ a small woman, by any means. She was only a head shorter than him and “sturdily built” as her navigator, Brii, once put it. She’d never been _literally swept off her feet_ before and the fact that Kallus could do so without any evident effort was enough to make her whimper wantonly in his ear.

“Your bunk or mine?” his polished accent was as impeccable as ever, but now it was delivered several octaves lower and between harsh bursts of breath.

Stars, but she _wanted_ him. Lust made a scramble of her brain, though, and it took Tarvi a few seconds to parse out his meaning.

“Oh...um…” she reluctantly turned her face from his and eyed the two bunks that were built one above the other in standard shipboard style.

Hers, on the other hand, was more of a proper bed than a bunk. Privileges of being the captain and all.

“Mine,” she managed as his sideburns brushed against the underside of her jaw as he turned his mouth to her neck. “We’ll kill ourselves in yours.”

He grunted what she assumed to be assent against her skin, before he pulled back and _slung her over his shoulder_ . Tarvi couldn’t help a sudden shriek of indignation and surprise. He ducked smoothly through the doorway and made his way quickly through the curving passageway that lead to her own quarters. Not once along the way was there any indication that she was at all _heavy_. Even slung across his freckled shoulder like a sack of tubers, Tarvi couldn’t recall the last time she felt so...delicate and...feminine. Two words that she usually didn’t think applied to her.

He tossed her down on her bed without warning, which elicited yet another squeak out of her. She stared up at his smug face and couldn’t help laughing.

“Proud of yourself?”

“Oh,” he flashed her his teeth in a grin as he grabbed her left boot and pulled it toward him. “I haven’t even started yet.”

* * *

 

Kallus wouldn’t let Tarvi help him undress her. He made short work of her clothes and the speed with which he worked seemed to excite her. She squirmed and sighed beneath his hands and it took every ounce of willpower he possessed to keep from stopping short and ravishing her. In mere minutes she was completely naked, her clothes tossed haphazardly to the deck at his feet, and Kallus paused to appreciate the beauty he had revealed.

Her skin was just a shade darker than its usual olive-green, which he knew by now indicated a blush. He started his appraisal at her feet and lingered over the areas that caught his fancy - her muscular calves, her thick thighs, her slightly smaller waist, her rounded belly, her heavy breasts. She had two of the distinctive, diamond-patterned tattooes encircling both of her biceps and Kallus briefly reflected that he had never slept with anyone with tattooes before. He had long ago decided that on Tarvi, at least, he liked the look - even more so, when she told him that they were more than mere decoration. He’d only seen the ones on her face before now - a pattern of diamonds that covered the bridge of her nose and spread across her cheeks, just below her eyes. He briefly wondered what she had done to earn the tattooes on her upper arms...but then he was promptly distracted by her breasts. 

Her nipples were hard; they were as dark as the diamond shapes etched into her skin. Kallus finally recalled that he still had his pants on, so - eyes still fixated on her chest - he pushed the loose pants off his hips and slid a knee onto the bed once they had hit the deck. He wasn’t wearing anything underneath and he heard Tarvi’s breath hitch as he crawled toward her.

He couldn’t help a smirk as he dipped his head down to run his tongue around one pert nipple. He was well aware of his...endowments...and was always pleased by the appreciation his past sexual partners had expressed with his width and length. Tarvi, he was sure, would end up just as satisfied by what he had to offer.

For the moment, however, he straddled her legs and settled his attention on her breasts. She tasted like any human woman - sweat, and flesh, and musk that was uniquely hers. He felt her go soft beneath him, as he laved her nipples with his tongue, and decided that _soft_ wasn’t what he had in mind at the moment. The question, of course, was if she was willing to play rough their first time.

He lightly bit her left nipple, just to see what happened. Tarvi’s response was all that he could have hoped for. Her back bowed instantly beneath him and her hands - which had been resting on his shoulders - abruptly plunged into his hair and she pulled, _hard_ , when he repeated the action on her right breast. She whimpered and he grunted at their mutual pain, but neither one gave any indication that they wanted it any other way. Kallus began dedicating himself to leaving as many marks as he could on her chest and she twisted her fingers in his hair the whole damn time.

He had just gotten started on her left breast, after finishing with the right, when she pushed her hips up into his and cried out. Eyes wide, Kallus lifted his head and looked up at her.

“Did you just cum?” he asked, a bit shocked by her reaction.

“No,” she admitted through gritted teeth. “But I’m close,” she bucked her hips again and he hissed as he felt her wetness slide against him. “Please...just take me.”

“No foreplay?” he chuckled at her impatience, but pushed his knees between her legs and spread her open. “We’ve got all the time in the galaxy,” he titled his head with a crooked smile. “All night, at least.”

“Maybe,” Tarvi raked her nails down his cheeks, in clear appreciation of the way his facial hair felt against her fingertips. “But, I don’t have that kind of patience right now.”

“As you say,” he lowered himself down his elbows and reached between them.

She angled her hips up to meet him, but Kallus was in a mood to play dirty. Instead of sliding inside of her - which, he was proud to note, would have been easy with as wet as she was - he grabbed his cock just beneath its head and began rubbing it between her labia. It was quite evident when he hit her clit, as Tarvi gasped, grabbed a hold of his arms, and dug her nails into his biceps.

“Please... _kriff_ ... _take me_ …”

Her pleas were his undoing. Usually, Kallus enjoyed building up to the main event - as it were - and considered himself quite skilled at foreplay. But apparently, tonight was not going to be a night for slow burning passion, or long minutes of deep kisses and heavy petting. Still, just to make sure…

“You want it hard?”

Tarvi all but melted into the mattress beneath them; her pupils were blown wide with lust and she practically begged him to _just shut up and fuck her_.

“Hells, _yes_.”

So, Kallus slammed into her - no warning, no preparation. She was tight, but soaking wet, and her shout seemed triumphant. He paused for a moment, just to make sure that he hadn’t hurt her, but Tarvi grabbed ahold of his hair and pulled tight, while wiggling desperately beneath him.

Hard it was, then. Kallus braced himself with a hand beside her head and started a steady rhythm at a brutal pace that left the Captain practically breathless. Their mouths met in a few sloppy kisses, but the way he pounded into her moved her body too much for any other coordinated effort between them.

Tarvi, it turned out, was _very_ vocal during sex and even Kallus got carried away by the sound, feel, sight, and taste of her. She met him thrust for thrust and rolled her hips once or twice; his heavy breathing quickly turned into low groans that seemed to drive her wild. Her hands left his hair a mess, only to wander down to his shoulders. In an experiment of her own, she raked her nails down his back and Kallus rewarded her with a guttural cry and a firm twitch of his cock.  That was all the encouragement Tarvi needed to dig her nails into every bit of skin she could reach and Kallus _reveled_ in the pain.

He grabbed her throat and titled her face up toward his. He meant to kiss her, but her body immediately went limp beneath him and her muscles clamped hard down on his cock in response to his dominate gesture. His release was sharp and sudden, and he cried out her name into her mouth as he pressed his forehead to hers, his hand still around her neck.

They were still for several seconds as they each tried to catch their breath. Kallus moved his hand and buried his face into the curve where her neck met her shoulder. _That_ hadn’t lasted half as long as he had planned.

“You didn’t cum, did you?” he mumbled into her sweat-soaked skin.

“No,” her breasts still heaved against his chest, but her breath was starting to even out. “But -”

“Just give me a minute,” he moved his hand down her side and settled against her hip. “I’ve got you.”

“O-oh, all right,” her tone was clearly puzzled.

They lay a few minutes more, him still on top of her, as he grew soft inside of her. She carded her fingers through his hair - her touch infinitely more gentle than before - and a companionable silence filled the cabin as he caught his breath.

* * *

 

Tarvi thought he’d finger her, so she was rendered completely speechless when he made a show of dragging his body down hers, to settle his shoulders between her legs. Equal parts intrigued and incredulous, the Mirialan propped herself up on her elbows to watch him slide his thumbs between her folds and spread her open. He made a pleased sort of sound in the back of his throat and then…

And then…

And then he lowered his open mouth down on her. Tarvi was fairly certain her brain was going to short-circuit, as the slick slide of his tongue lapped at her opening, at the mingled mess of their union. He held her gaze as he licked her once, twice, in deliberate strokes that gathered the taste of them both. 

“But…” she whispered and shook her head, almost unable to believe what he was doing.

He rendered her speechless a second time, as he abruptly buried his face between her thighs and _pushed his tongue into her_ . Speechless, however, did not equal silent, and the sound Tarvi made was practically primal. She wasn’t sure if he was _cleaning_ her or _fucking_ her, with his tongue, but whatever it was he was doing, he was driving her senseless while he did it.

 _Finally_ , he lifted his mouth, turned his face, and nuzzled the inside of her thigh. She shivered at the way his ‘chops brushed roughly against her now overly-sensitive skin. He gave her a sly, sideways glance and nipped her playfully.

“I think I like the way we taste.”

His confession was her undoing. Tarvi groaned and gave up on trying to hold herself up on her elbows. She flopped back on the pillows and threw an arm over her eyes.

“Kriff,” she responded weakly.

“Watch me,” this time, his tone was one of unmistakable command.

She obeyed immediately, more out being startled, than from any inherent desire to obey him. Their gazes met above the gentle swell of her stomach and Tarvi thought - not for the first time - that he had beautiful eyes. She had never quite made up her mind on whether they were the color of brass, or amber, or gold. Right now, they were heavy-lidded and dark, most definitely a light, and somewhat smoky, brown. As he moved his hands to hold down her hips, and as he lowered his mouth over her a second time, Tarvi knew that she’d live her whole life with the sight of those tawny eyes seared into her memory.

Kallus meant business. He focused solely on her clit; his strokes were hard and confident, and had Tarvi panting helplessly within seconds. Pleasure coiled quickly within her and while she was sure that Kallus was fully capable of dragging that pleasure out until she was begging him to cum, he instead wrapped his lips around her and sucked hard. _That_ brought Tarvi’s hips up and off the bed, but it was the careful scrape of his blunt teeth across her clit that snapped that tight coil of pleasure so tight that it finally broke. Unable to keep her eyes open, she threw her head back and screamed.

“Jairon!”

* * *

 

Kallus was sitting on the edge of the bed and fishing his pants off of the floor when her question startled him. 

“You’re not leaving, are you?”

“I...ah…” he stammered, pulled up short.

He’d had plenty of dalliances throughout his life, starting in his late teens and up to about a couple of months before meeting Tarvi. He’d never had what he’d call a ‘relationship’ though - not the sort where he’d _sleep_ in his partner’s bed, at least. The partners he’d had before hadn’t really been that sort and he hadn’t really minded at the time. It was normal for him to move on to his own quarters, once he had caught his breath and had made sure that his partner was done with him for the night.

It was, he reflected, just another indication of how disassociated the Empire made its citizens - its _servants_ especially. He hadn’t entered Tarvi’s quarters with any expectation of _staying_. But, now she asked…

“You want me to stay?” he asked cautiously.

“After that performance?” she smiled smugly at him and patted the mattress beside her. “Of _course_. Plus,” she motioned coyly at his still-naked body. “I’d like to admire your scars, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh...” he reached up self-consciously with one hand and smoothed his fingers over the ragged edge of the scar that began just above his right pectoral.

He smiled, to assure her that he didn’t, in fact, mind.

“If you like that sort of thing, I have plenty,” he quipped, as he turned his attention away from his pants, still pooled on the deck, and toward the sheets that Tarvi helped him pull back.

Once he was settled on his back beside her, he lifted his right arm in invitation for her to snuggle close. She did so willingly and soon had her fingers dancing lightly across his chest and sides, as she explored the few scoring marks he’d collected over the years from blaster fire. The largest scar, however, was the one he had watched her eye earlier in the ‘fresher. When she asked, he explained that it was a memento from Onderon.

“It’s how I became ambidextrous, actually,” he lifted his left hand and wiggled his fingers at her. “Took quite a while before I could move my right arm without pain. Even after the bacta tank.”

They fell into another companionable silence and Kallus felt his eyes grow heavy as Tarvi’s fingers made little circular patterns across the center of his chest. Just before he drifted off, though, she asked another question, her words slightly slurred with exhaustion.

“Where do we go from here, Jairon?”

“I suppose we go to sleep and see what we think of each other in the morning,” Kallus suggested sleepily.

He turned his face and kissed the top of her burgundy-colored hair.

“For what it’s worth,” he offered. “I think I’ll still like you in the morning, Tarvi. Quite possibly a bit more than I did _this_ morning.”

“Good,” Tarvi threw a leg over his and wrapped her arm across his chest. “I think I’ll feel the same way about you, too.”

Sleep claimed them quickly after that. It was, it would turn out, the best night’s sleep Kallus had had in years. And, incidentally, waking up to Tarvi’s face pressed against his shoulder, was a whole lot better than waking up to Zeb Orrelios in the same position. It was, he decided in the morning, as she rolled over on her side and he spooned around her, a better way of waking up than any he had ever imagined for himself.

He hadn’t been sure what to do with himself, since being stranded on a Geonosian ice moon with a Lasat rebel. But, he decided as he gently pulled her head back for a slow, lingering kiss... _her_ , he could fight for.

**Author's Note:**

> If you've enjoyed what you've read so far, please come follow my original fiction on Inkitt.com!
> 
> Teaser: "Kivi is a queen in exile, pretending to be ordinary. Kæl is a reluctant king, heir to a curse. Tragedy, politics, and war bring them together. But only love will break a curse, and crown a queen."
> 
> https://www.inkitt.com/stories/romance/70037?preview=true&ref=a_420bd4bb-390d-452d-9603-d438b913e842
> 
> This is a high-fantasy romance with strong Tolkien, British Celtic, and Arthurian influences. Here's what one reader (and of Inkitt's published authors) has said about "The Uncrowned Queen": "The intricate world-building alone will please any fantasy fan; the in-depth portrayals of good people in difficult situations will draw in readers from any genre."
> 
> Please stop by, make an account (it's free, can be done with a Facebook account, and Inkitt does NOT spam), and add "The Uncrowned Queen" to your virtual book shelf. With your help, maybe one day, what once started off as a fanfiction can exist on your real-world shelf as a fully realized dream. :-)


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